There's A New, Better Way To Close Apps On Your Phone

The iPhone X has proved a massive hit with users, with a huge takeup in its month or so of public release and a further surge expected as Christmas looms into view. Over 2 percent of iPhones are now iPhone Xs, according to DigiTimes, which might not seem like a lot, but is a colossal amount of cash when you consider just how many iPhone users there are in the world. According to 9to5Mac, 35% of folks in the market for a new phone are considering the latest Apple model.

One of the drawbacks of the new model, however, has been the lack of a home button - the trusty fail-safe option for many users when something goes wrong on their handsets. As anyone who has had the thing break will know (we've all been there, usually after a messy night out), a lack of a home button on an iPhone is really bloody annoying, making it something of an unusual choice for Apple to drop such a crucial feature - particularly when an app crashed and a force close is required.

Previously, you'd just double tap the home button and swipe the offending app away, but without that home key there, things get a little more complicated. Fortunately, there are always clever clogs out there to explain the whole thing to tech morons like us. Enter Gadgethacks' Amboy Manalo.

Manalo has got the system down, explaining: "To access the app switcher, you'll need swipe up from the bottom of the screen, then pause with your finger in the middle of the screen for a second until all of the app cards appear."

"That pause is key. If you swipe too fast and don't hold, you'll just go back to the home screen."

We're with you, just about - but apps can't simply be swiped away as previously, so what do we do now?

This requires a depth of iPhone historical knowledge that is beyond us, apparently: "So far, the only way we've found to properly close apps from the multitasking screen on the iPhone X is to use the older long-press gesture employed in iOS 4 through iOS 6.

To try it out, just long-press any app in the multitasking UI, and a red button marked with a minus (-) sign will appear at the top of each card. From here, just tap the minus button to close any app of your choosing."

Oh, there's more: "The swipe-to-dismiss gesture isn't completely gone. When the red minus buttons are displayed, you can then swipe up on cards to force-close them. So you still can swipe up to close, but only with those red minus buttons present. If they aren't present, you will just be going back to the home screen."

The traditional swiping function also just isn't really that necessary, The Independent says. Despite us thinking that apps running in the background take up memory or slow down performance, that's not exactly true. That's because some apps are often moved into a 'sleeping state', meaning that they're not taking up that much battery after all - and by not closing them you could help save battery, rather than use it up.

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